My boyfriend and fellow NTP, John Fotheringham, is a whiz at website design. He designed this very blog for me, our website for our practice together, Flourish Fundamentals, his own language-learning website, Language Mastery, and a ton others. If you’re a new NTP and you want to know some of the basic information you need to get a website started, here are the providers that he recommends.

As you may know, I recently completed a nine-month certification through the Nutritional Therapy Association to be a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner. The organization is based in Olympia, but they’ve got classes nationwide (and a couple starting in Canada and Australia soon). This is my review of the program based on my experience!

I am really excited to write this post, and I have been wanting to do it for a long time. But before I start, I want to say that I am writing my ‘paleo success story’ not because I want you to be impressed of the before and after pictures, or that you will think highly of me, but because I want people to understand that eating real food works. It is what your body needs. And many so-called ‘incurable’ health issues can be reversed or eliminated completely just through the food that you eat.

These are my version of Ukrainian meat patties (kotleti) which I was taught to make while I was in Ukraine. Kotleti are kind of like American burgers, but sexier. They’re moist and tender, and they are so flavorful! Everyone that I’ve made them for since I’ve been back in the States has loved them. With nearly endless combinations of meats and spices, they are versatile enough to have multiple times in the week without getting bored. (Plus, they’re ovular. And who doesn’t love that word?! Oooovular. Fantastic).

This time of year, carrots are plentiful and inexpensive, but after many batches of roast carrots and roast carrot soup, they can become a bit boring. If you are looking for something new to do with all those carrots, this carrot salad is for you!

This is a spiced butternut squash soup that is creamy, sweet and super comforting! Roasting the vegetables brings out their sweetness and gives the soup a fantastic flavor. This soup is another one of the household staples that we have had at least once a week this autumn. It’s hearty and delicious and one of my all-time favorites. It’s especially yummy served with a roast meat such as pork or beef.

Alisa from Paleo in PDX had an amazing chicken soup recipe recently, and it inspired me to post my chicken soup recipe that The Ukrainian taught me. This soup is a staple meal in our household, and is loved by two out of three family members*. It’s especially good this time of year when the days are short and grey and nothing sounds better than curling up on the couch with a good book and a fuzzy blanket. And if you’ve got a sickie in the house, make this for them and I’m sure they will perk up soon!

My boyfriend and fellow NTP, John Fotheringham, is a whiz at website design. He designed this very blog for me, our website for our practice together, Flourish Fundamentals, his own language-learning website, Language Mastery, and a ton others. If you’re a new NTP and you want to know some of the basic information you need to get a website started, here are the providers that he recommends.

Ounce for ounce, liver is the most nutrient dense food in the world. It’s the ultimate preconception/prenatal food to help build up those nutrient stores and it’s an amazing fatigue fighter! It’s been considered a sacred food in many traditional cultures around the world for thousands of years. But, it can seem a little scary, especially if you don’t know what it’s going to taste like and you don’t know how to prepare it. Here’s a roundup of recipes for the liver beginner, plus methods for adding a little extra liver to food! It’s recommended to get one full serving a week.

As you may know, I recently completed a nine-month certification through the Nutritional Therapy Association to be a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner. The organization is based in Olympia, but they’ve got classes nationwide (and a couple starting in Canada and Australia soon). This is my review of the program based on my experience!

We’ve all heard the marketing phrase, “Milk… it does a body good!” But, this is based on the assumption that we aren’t getting enough calcium in our diet, and that we need MORE calcium in the diet for strong bones. It may surprise you to know that most people get enough dietary calcium, but many are not able to USE the calcium in their body – and that the excess calcium could be harming them! In reality, calcium is a game of cofactors, and many people are lacking in the co-factors necessary to assimilate it.

Your body is smart. It constantly has to make decisions and tradeoffs based on priorities. The body will always prioritize keeping you alive today. And thank goodness it does: our body can kick in with adrenaline and cortisol (stress hormones) when it needs to so we can survive. Historically, this would only have happened occasionally for very short periods of time, specifically emergency situations, like being chased by a giant moose. In our modern lifestyle, we are chronically stressed. It may be from high sugar intake, which taxes the adrenals, or food sensitivities, or toxic exposure, or psychological stress from grief. This is where problems start to happen: chronic stress throws off the delicate hormone orchestra. Through a series of pathways, stress inhibits reproductive function.

Our hormones are basically little chemical messengers that tell the body what to do. They are a communication system for the body, similar to the nerve impulse messages that move our muscles, but rather than through nerves, the message is sent by the endocrine glands secreting hormones, sending them from one set of cells to another. The balance of our hormones is a very, very delicate orchestra of lots of organs and lots of hormones (over 100 different kinds!), all playing together. A combination of nutrition, lifestyle and environmental factors can throw this delicate balance off, and it can lead to a whole bunch of symptoms.